Drilling holes within structures can be a common requirement in both medical and industrial fields. For example, in medical fields, drilling a hole through cartilage and/or bone may be desired. As a further example, in industrial fields, drilling a hole through wood, brick, steel and/or drywall may be desired. In general, a standard drill with a drill bit can be utilized to create the desired hole in the structure or material. Some traditional drills include a drill bit secured with a chuck which can be spun by a motorized system. Thus, any force or linear translation applied to the drill can be transferred directly to the drill bit.
Although the standard drill can be utilized successfully in sonic scenarios, in other scenarios, the depth of penetration of the drill bit in the structure or material can be critical. For example, in medical fields, structures such as blood vessels and/or nerves can exist behind the cartilage and/or bone being drilled and inadvertent injury to these structures can be catastrophic, e.g., vascular injury, neurologic damage, and the like. Similarly, in industrial fields, structures such as electrical wires can exist behind the material being drilled and inadvertent injury or penetration to these structures can be catastrophic or harmful to the user, e.g., electrocution injury, and the like. Thus, an inadvertent “plunging” of the drill bit, e.g., the drill bit traveling beyond the material being drilled, could lead to injury of the structures behind the material being drilled by the spinning drill bit itself and/or through direct penetration of the structure.
Traditionally, prevention of such injuries has been to allow the drill bit to travel only a fixed or predetermined distance, e.g., by utilizing a drill press or a similar device. However, in this method, the thickness of the material being drilled must be accurately known. In many scenarios, the thickness of the material being drilled may not be known to the user, e.g., drilling dry wall, or may be variable, e.g., curved bone. Thus, a common scenario involves drilling blindly whereby the distal surface, e.g., the inner surface, of the material being drilled is not visualized by the user. Therefore, the thickness of the material, e.g., the thickness of the bone, the current depth of penetration of the material by the drill bit and/or the structures behind the material being drilled, e.g., blood vessels, nerves, electrical wires, and the like, are not known.
Thus, a need exists for drills and associated methods which prevent spinning and/or advancing of a drill bit upon penetration of a structure. A further need exists for a drill and associated methods of use which retracts the drill bit of the drill away from the structures beyond the material being drilled upon penetration of the material. These and other needs are addressed by the collapsible drill and associated methods of use presently disclosed.